Related Field
The present invention relates to a knee orthosis for support of a knee joint in the case of instability, comprising a thigh portion, attachable on the thigh via fixing means, with an upper half shell and hinge plates fixed to the half shell, a lower leg portion, attachable to the lower leg via fixing means, with a lower half shell and splint elements attached laterally on the lower half shell, which splint elements are connected to the respective hinge plate via articulation means and in which splint elements, in the regions remote from the articulation means, the lower half shell is pivotably borne about a pivot axis and is pivotable toward the lower leg via adjustment means.
Related Art
Especially with knee instability owing to injury of the cruciate ligaments it is necessary for the knee joint to be supported in order to prevent in particular a defective position of the tibia to the femur. Knee orthoses are used for this purpose which give the knee joint the desired stability. It has been shown that with knee orthoses of this kind, especially with bent knee as occurs, for example, in a sitting position of the respective person, a displacement of the tibia to the femur nevertheless results. A displacement of this kind can have as a consequence an overstretching of the corresponding cruciate ligaments, which can occur both with a surgical as well as with a conservative treatment of the injury and should be avoided as much as possible.
The patent publication DE 102 59 751 A1 discloses a knee orthosis which is supposed to prevent such a displacement of the tibia to the femur. For this purpose this knee orthosis is designed in such a way that the lower half shell of the knee orthosis is pressed, via an adjustable spring pressure, toward the upper region of the lower leg in order to thereby counteract a movement of the tibia to the femur.
It has thereby been shown that this pressure against the upper region of the lower leg is not optimal. Thus, for example, this pressure can have the desired magnitude in the bent position of the knee, but in the stretched position of the knee this pressure is too great, which is disadvantageous.